Does your life reflect your intention? If you had to write a mission statement, what might it be? And how does everything else in your life support, undermine, or avoid this? I ask because too many of us are still uncertain of direction, or we are living fragmented lives. We speak one thing here, and there, we act in a way that contradicts our speech. We’ve lost our way. We are going through the motions. We’ve forgotten our connection to the Gods. Sometimes we’ve had it. We h

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” – Mevlana Rumi Some days, even Rumi is wrong. I’ve been sick this week. One of my partners brought home a bug and, careful as we try to be in our communal household of five people, I succumbed. Mostly I’ve slept. Done some reading. Snatches of work that had to be done – a new class starting, things to schedule with students and clients, conference deadlines. Slept some more. Read some more. Slept some more.

I have a new essay up over at Huffington Post. I hope you visit and join the conversation over there – the comments are already coming in! Here is an excerpt: To paraphrase Joseph Campbell: I don’t need belief because I have experience. I can have profoundly moving experiences of deities, or swimming in a sea of light and connection, or have a deep intuitive insight into someone else. I might come up with theories based on these experiences over time, and test these against o

. Recently I posted these words: “It is good to recall that ‘comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable’ often needs to include myself/ourselves. We learn and grow more that way.” They were written in response to a conversation I was having on Twitter. I was trying to explain how our comfort level sometimes needs to be challenged, our assumptions need to be startled, and our privilege questioned. Sometimes that means we walk away from a conversation – hopefully temporaril

. What does your heart or soul long for? What do your thoughts turn to? What is the desire that has been coiling at your core? What are you making a priority? If we do not act on our deepest soul desires, we are not allowing ourselves to do the work we are meant to do. We can choose to find ways to support our: art, activism, gardening, research, service, music, dance, parenting, writing, justice work, singing, laughter, study, leadership, spiritual practice…Name the abiding

. What is important to you? Find that. Do that. Choose that. Last night I attended a book event to celebrate a new imprint for a small publisher: Concrescent Press. Two people read their works, both of whom had been writing for self and friends for years. The event was held in a small temple space in Oakland. People volunteered to sell books and serve sparkling juice and wine. All of this came about because Pagan scholar Sam Webster decided he wanted to publish books – that m

. Lately, I’ve been counting my blessings. Walking kitchen scraps out to the compost, I thank the Gods and spirits who bless the garden that grows our food and offers shelter to many birds. I thank the sun and water. I count as blessings my health,  partners and friends, drive, creativity, birds, music, movement, students, clients, and the great return to silence. Two things increase my sense of happiness: many years of meditation, contemplation, and prayer, plus the knowledg

Whom do you love? What do you love? We never said it would be easy, this journey into the magick of your soul. We never promised a life of shining things, nor did we promise never ending grief. All we could promise was a life well lived, should you choose it. All we could promise was that the above and below, the within and without, should be reflections of each other. Have you pared down enough to sense this, at long last? The works of magick, of the unfolding spool of lif

I’ve written on service before, but this is another installment in my ad hoc series on Leadership: Yesterday at the soup kitchen, while stacking chairs and wiping off tables at the end of shift, I watched a co-worker trying to wake up the last person remaining in the yard, telling him we were closed and it was time to go. The man would raise his head to acknowledge this, and then, head would drop once more. He couldn’t keep his head up, or remember he needed to leave, for mor

I thought I was going to sit down today to write about the dangers of granting autocratic power of endless war, and the implications of unannounced police invasion of people’s homes and what this means to me as a magical practitioner, citizen, and member of the cosmos… But before I could get up on my high horse and ride, this message came through: “Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Call back your energy. Continue with prayer, with practice, with opening to knowledge.” It was

Let me remain in a state of relationship and inquiry with my ego. May pride give me the sense of my rightful place within in the world, within this cosmos, within the great unfolding dance of time. May I not get caught up in ignorance, or internal greed, or the need to always feel that I am right. May I ever court true peers and comrades who laugh with me, cry with me, inquire with me, and call me on my shit. May I seek out suppleness, and a return to centering, when the crus

“The thing that rants and raves and seeks, make it still. That thing that never moves, make it move.” – Koyote the Blind I recently made another commitment to the cosmos to step up my responsibility and open further to power. As life has it, this also must include my time at the gym. I’ve got to be healthy to strengthen my will and must strengthen my will to become yet more healthy. Nothing in life is free from the soul’s desire. This week, my trainer did some experimental